Manyoni fire, 17 August 2020 Manyoni
The fire started on 17 August 2020 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 21 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 9,699ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 17 Aug 2020 – 4 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 384
- in a single hotspot: 57 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,554 ha in 2016, 2,825 ha in 2017, 2,853 ha in 2018, 3,418 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,540 ha that had burned before.
- 2,766 ha Manyoni fire, July 2016 3,610 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,259 ha Manyoni fire, August 2018 7,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 933 ha Manyoni fire, July 2019 6,562 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 184 ha Manyoni fire, June 2017 6,513 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 84 ha Manyoni fire, July 2016 6,711 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manyoni where it started9,773 ha reached on 17 Aug0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 28.0 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Aug | 28.0 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Aug | 28.6 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Aug | 27.8 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Aug | 25.2 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug | 26.4 °C | 34 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Aug | 24.9 °C | 40 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Aug | 28.0 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Aug | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Aug | 28.6 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Aug | 28.9 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Aug | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Aug | 29.6 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Aug | 29.6 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Sept | 29.0 °C | 21 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Sept | 28.5 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Sept | 26.9 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Sept | 29.7 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept after | 27.1 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 10 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 35 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 384Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,465 haManyoni10 July 2019 · 11 days · 18 km away
- 21,611 haManyoni9 August 2026 · 23 days · 27 km away
- 22,710 haManyoni18 July 2026 · 13 days · 31 km away
- 45,221 haManyoni4 July 2017 · 37 days · 37 km away
- 21,814 haManyoni25 June 2017 · 7 days · 38 km away
- 15,867 haManyoni15 July 2020 · 9 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manyoni fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2020 and 4 September 2020: 19 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,699 hectares (97.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manyoni (9,773 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Tanzania (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 112
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.